JediAndi

Little Leondari (our baby lion) has just returned from his holiday in Germany. He managed to take a few photos while he was there, mostly of the trouble he was getting up to, and he asked me to share his adventure with the world.
OK, so I was there too, but it was really about getting Leondari and MyKitten their first big holiday. I did take some proper photos, I'm going through a bit of a panorama phase at the moment so there's a bit of work to be done to make them all pretty. I've got lots of work to catch up on and then I can get on the holiday snaps, so these should keep you all happy for the time being.

Catching the train:

I got out the shower this morning and started thinking about what I was going to do with my day. Then the phone rang. It was a girl who is on my email distribution list. Turns out she works for BBC Scotland. Turns out they are doing a thing about Nude Portraiture. Turns out they want me to be on live radio tomorrow morning.

I'm

Freaking

OUT!!!!!!!

This sort of thing never happens to me!! I'm so excited, it is such awesome marketing that I couldn't have bought for any money. The show is hosted by a scottish comedian called Fred MacAulay. His son goes to my old school.
I'll post an audio clip as soon as I can get one. This could be so great!!!

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god............................................................

A friend of mine just published a book!! I'm so excited about this because she's such an awesome person and she has a true gift for telling a story.
It is a fairy tale set in the Caribbean about a young fairy who makes an innocent blunder on what turns out to be the most important day of her school career. The repercussions of that, in combination with a string of misguided decisions result in her losing a most treasured gift! When she can no longer hide the truth (and in the face of great uncertainty) she faces a life changing choice.

Yesterday marked my very first newborn shoot, and I had such a blast! It certainly taught me a little more about patience than I used to know!!
The photos are just gorgeous and need almost nothing done to them.
I thought I'd share a few so you can all coo in harmony at them!!

I've been so busy these past few months that I have not had time to come and write a blog post in ages!! It's not that I haven't had stuff going on, it's just that I've had too much going on to write about it all before another thing comes along to get me.
I figured I ought to let everyone know that I am still alive, and business is going great, things just keep getting busier and busier, which of course leaves me with no time to come and write about stuff here.
I got pretty bored of all my old photos, so decided it was about time for a new one. So I trawled the net looking for inspiration and couldn't find anything that grabbed me, until one night when I recognised someone I saw in an episode of NCIS, so I just had to find who they were and what other show I'd seen them in. Hopped on over to IMDb.com and was browsing through a few things when I stumbled upon a gem of a headshot for an actor called Michael Weatherly (Tony DiNozzo in NCIS), so I set out to create an image of me in homage to that shot.
Here is the result. I like it.

This made MyKitten laugh until she cried, it is frighteningly reminiscent of her actual wakeup call...

I shot the wedding last Saturday, and have been slaving away this week to edit up the shots, except this week ahs been way way busier than usual and it has taken longer than I hoped, but here for your viewing pleasure is my personal favourite from the whole set. I really feel like my wedding photography has improved since the last one.

Do you realise that it has been over a whole year that I have managed to put up with MyKitten!?!?! A whole year!!! Somehow I've tolerated the many personalities of Kitten, I've placated the AngryKitten, I've managed to appease the HungryGrumpyKitten, I've even managed to sedate the FreakinOutArachnophobicKitten!!
Yesterday was our Fluffiversary, it was a great day. At the moment business is going really incredibly well, work seems to just be streaming forth from an unknown fountain of opportunity, I'm not complaining, I'm loving every minute of it!! Which of course means that I'm much happier and fluffier and able to take things as choose, not having to work with every random person who offers me a shiny sixpence for bending over and taking it from them, I get to pick and choose as I see fit and it meant that I could decide to take yesterday off (in as much as we, the self employed, will ever have an actual day off...) I still had to do some work, but managed to take some time to spend with MyKitten.
We'll have to wait until a little closer to Christmas to actually do something to celebrate but we don't mind, we'll have plenty of times to celebrate in the future.
I love MyKitten and I do what I can to make every day a fluffy day, to remind her just how important she is. Why not make today a special (or a specialer) day for someone you love??

Tomorrow I shall be shooting my third wedding ever, I'm not as nervous as previously, I think I've grown into the role of being a fantastic wedding photographer. It's a friend of mine getting married (as I mentioned in this post) she is an awesome bride-to-be (sorry Kelly!!) she has laid aside so much time for photos and has basically geared the entire wedding around me!! Seh has also very kindly invited MyKitten and I to the meal, if we weren't going to be shooting the wedding then we'd have merited an invite to the full day, but I have a job to do!!
This is Clair again:

I really am excited about this wedding, I know I can nail it. I've expanded my knowledge and kit to address all the teensy little problems I encountered at previous weddings, so I'm feeling damn confident about it all.
Business in general has rocketed this month, I was just getting to the worried about Christmas stage when all of a sudden the whole thing took off all by itself. I've had so many more enquiries, and more importantly I've had more clients. So I've covered off living expenses for at least the next two months already, and I'm still getting more people coming to me!! I'm really enjoying being self employed now, not just because I can choose what time I get up in the morning, but I'm really starting to enjoy the everyday part of the job!!
Speaking of which, I can't sit here voxing all day, I've got a successful business to run!!

That's where I was last night, with MyKitten, soaking up some culture for a change.
One of my headshot clients, Sarah, mentioned during her sitting that she was in a play at the theatre which sits behind the building I live in. I mean seriously, I have culture less than 50 yards from my home and I have never taken the chance to go get it!!
She was in a Dario Fo play called Accidental Death of an Anarchist which has been translated by Alan Cumming. The whole show is a bit of a crazy slapstick comedy with a far reaching political undertone. The whole show was great, and it's wonderful to see one of my clients in action.
This is Sarah:

Ain't she pretty? and talented too, she easily out voiced her male colleagues when it came to singing.
I love things like the theatre and the opera, I just never bother to go looking for things to go see, I always need someone to invite me, and then I'm there. She suggested and we went. I need more friends like her!!